The Patrician
August 2011
The Victoria Flying Club ~ 1946-2011 ~ Celebrating 65 Years of Aviation Excellence
Canyonlands National Park in a C-172 ~Colin Williamson’s story pg. 9
The Patrician Monthly Newsletter of The Victoria Flying Club
The Victoria Flying Club
August 2011
Celebrating 65 Years of Aviation Excellence
In this issue: 3 Summer BBQ in the VFC Hangar 6 The De-Havilland Hornet Moth By: Dave Featherstonhaugh 9 Flying the Canyonlands
“To promote flying and aviation in general, and to teach and trainn persons in the art and science of flying and navigating and operating all manner of heavier-than-air aircraft.� (Victoria Flying Club Incorporation Bylaws, 1946)
Board of Directors President......................................Lloyd Toope Vice President.........................Don Devenney Treasurer......................................Kim Sterling Secretary.............................Colin Williamson Directors.........................................Sean Steele Ellen Wood Steve Demy Sam Roland General Manager........................Gerry Mants Chief Flying Instructor.........Graham Palmer
By: Colin Williamson
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18 First Solo Photos: A Record Number!
Editor/Publisher: Christie Hall thepatrician@shaw.ca Midnight Design & Communication info@midnightdesign.ca
1852 Canso Road Sidney, BC V8L 5V5 The Patrician accepts unsolicited submissions. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, with prior permission of the publisher or author. The opinions expressed are strictly those of the authors.
www.flyvfc.com Phone: 250-656-2833 Fax: 250-655-0910
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Victoria Flying Club News Prime Time Policy Amendment
Planning A Trip This Summer?
If you are interested in attending an upcoming Mountain Groundschool Seminar, please call the Victoria Flying Club at 250-656-2833 to put your name on the list.
In May of this year, to ensure the Victoria Flying
Club would have sufficient fleet capacity on hand during the peak summertime demand period, the Victoria Flying Club Board approved a Prime Time Policy effective June 1, 2011. Without it, your board was concerned we could not meet the needs of contracted summer business (Scholarship Cadets, Cadet Familiarization flights, and fire patrols) plus our day to day training commitments to our regular students.
Meanwhile, ongoing efforts to increase fleet capac-
ity and make more efficient use of our aircraft, have paid off. Graham Palmer has reworked the Cadet flight training schedule utilizing the aircraft from Monday through Friday, with ground school on Saturday, and Sunday off. In addition, Gerry Mants has been able to lease three additional Cessna 172M aircraft until August 31st. This improved scheduling and increased capacity has allowed your Board to ease the weekend restrictions of the Prime Time Policy.
Effective immediately, the Prime Time Policy
applies only to weekdays 10am through 5pm, but NOT to weekends and statutory holidays.
Please note that multi-day rentals that include any
weekdays are still at the discretion of the Manager or CFI.
So if you want a 172 for weekend flying call us or log onto the booking system – we now have the capacity to look after you.
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5-11 PM Tickets $10
Includes BBQ Dinner/Pop/Band
VFC Presents
The Archers
BEER $3 COOLERS $4 Shuttle Bus to downtown *Limited Seating* $2 with ticket purchase Tickets available at VFC Front Desk
playing from 7-10
Family Fun. Plenty of parking on site. Admission by donation. Fly-ins welcome. Food & Refreshments will be available on-site. Special Events include an appearance by Hawk One – Canada’s only flying F-86 Sabre, the run-up of the Noorduyn Norseman, and the display of a number of special aircraft.
British Columbia Aviation Museum Victoria Airport (CYYJ) 1910 Norseman Road Annual Open House and Fly-in
Fore further information, please call the BC Aviation Museum at 250-655-3300 or visit our website at: www.bcam.net
Saturday, August 6, 2011 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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Photo of the Month This month’s winning photo was submitted by: Matthew Carlow A great shot from the Abbotsford Airshow! Each month in The Patrician, you have the opportunity to win prizes from the pilot shop. Submit one aviation photo per month for your chance to win. Each photo submitted through the year is entered in a draw for a $100 Victoria Flying Club gift certificate at the end of the year. If you submit a photo each month, that gives you twelve chances to win! Submit your monthly photo to: thepatrician@shaw.ca
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Private Pilot Groundschool Monday and Wednesday 1900-2200 Victoria Flying Club Classroom
DATE TOPIC INSTRUCTOR
Aug 03 Meteorology Simon Dennis 08 Meteorology Simon Dennis 10 Meteorology Simon Dennis 15 Meteorology Simon Dennis 17 Meteorology Simon Dennis 22 Meteorology Simon Dennis 24 Radio & Electronic Theory Dirk Pritchard 29 Flight Operations Yasuhiro Koide 31 Flight Operations Yasuhiro Koide Sept 07 Navigation Clint Elliott 12 Navigation Clint Elliot 14 Navigation Clint Elliot 19 Written Exam Prep Seminar John McConnachie 21 Review Brad Fraser
To register for Groundschool, or to purchase your Groundschool Kit, please contact the Victoria Flying Club Office at 250-656-2833. If you are interested in Commercial Groundschool, please contact the Victoria Flying Club Office at 250-656-2833, or email info@flyvfc.com.
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De-Havilland Hornet Moth I recently came across a few photos of a DeHavilland DH.87B Hornet Moth (c/n 8062). I think these pactures were taken in the late 40's. The aircraft was owned by De Havilland Canada and was flown to the cottage in Muskoka (north of Toronto) by my great Uncle, Philip C Garratt. Phil was Managing Director of De Havilland Canada. He continued to fly a Beaver ( CF-PCG ) to the cottage from De Havilland for many years, in the 60’s and 70’s. One of the photos has the following caption: “This shot is from the Leo J. Kohn collection. The Hornet Moth was owned by de Havilland’s of Canada for many years in the 1940s and 1950s. Note ventral extension to fin and rudder to compensate for side area of the floats forward of the c.of g. It was written off in a crash at Caledon in 1958.”
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~ from Dave Featherstonhaugh
August 2011
Achievements
New Members
First Solo Kieran Dunford Michael Millerchip Laszlo Kabath Ron Gorodetsky Sheryl Petschl Kenneth Levinski Oliver Xie Sikander Randhawa Rachel Louis Cheyenne Smith Wylie Li Emily Poon Andrea Ho Ken Teghtmeyer Mark Robinson Geoff Goldie Sarah Bergen Dustin Eno
Dustin Eno Rowan Stewart Milton Cortes Peter Dibben Thomas Pasetka Bahram Azarafza Ryan McCormick Peter Tennent Chi Done
Welcome to the Victoria Flying Club!
PPL Written Exam Firat Ataman Sarah Blackstone Brian Buchan Stephen Synnuck Andew Plaunt Morgan Belton PPL Flight Test Rob Killin Firat Ataman Brian Buchan Nate D’Arcy Class IV Instructor Rating Flight Test Tyler Bishop Kale Haley Multi-Engine Flight Test Luc Arseneault
Congratulations!
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August Mystery Aircraft July Mystery Identified This is the Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker. Developed from the B-29 Stratofortress, the type served with the USAF from 1950 to 1978 and 800+ were employed over the years. Later models like the KC-97L shown here had J-47 jet engines added so it could keep up with faster fuel recipients. Correctly identified by: Daryl Williams, Philip D’Angelo, Morgan Belton, Kurt and Eric Alisch. Thanks guys! Nice work.
Can you identify the aircraft shown below? Email: thepatrician@shaw.ca
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Flying The Canyonlands By: Colin Williamson
It seems all of North America had a long cold winter
jave Desert and eventually into Arizona on the 4th day. And just for fun we got our kicks on Route 66 along the way to the Grand Canyon. If you have never been to the Canyon – put it on your Bucket List, right now! It is absolutely stunning!
this year. My wife, Kim, and I decided that we needed to go south to get some sun and warmer weather. Kim had never been to the Grand Canyon and had always wanted to go. So, putting 2 and 2 together, we decided our Goldwing motorcycle needed a trip down to the Canyon. Some nosing around on the web added some incentive for a little side-trip – we came across Red Tail Aviation’s web-page with some stunning photos of the scenery near Moab, Utah, located right between Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in south-eastern Utah. See http://www.moab-utah.com/redtail/
After a few days of hiking, watching awesome sun-
sets and taking way too many photos, we started the 7-hour ride from the Grand Canyon to Moab, crossing the Painted Desert and riding through Monument Valley along the way. The scenery is jaw-dropping. You’re never quite sure if you are going to run into John Wayne, Indiana Jones, Wile E. Coyote or Spaceman Spiff along the way! Moab is located on the Colorado River about 400 miles upstream of Grand Canyon National Park. Arches National Park, just a short ride out of Moab, has – no exaggeration – about 2,000 naturally formed rock arches. A bit to the south-west
We departed Victoria via the Coho on April 29th.
The first couple of days on I-5 were cool and damp but sure enough once we got to California the weather turned warm and sunny. Another day and 400 miles further south we started heading east across the Mo-
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of Moab is Canyonlands National Park. The Green River joins the Colorado River here. The deep canyons carved by the river, rain and wind have caused incredible erosion over the last 5 million years or so. The result is a gob-smacking sight that stretches for vast distances. The only way to see this properly is to fly over it!
We had contacted Red Tail Aviation before we left
and arranged to rent a C-172. We arrived in the morning at Moab airport and took only a minute or two to find their very affable CFI, Nick Lamoureux. Nick was amused when he met us, saying he’d never before had a customer bring his own knee-board. It seemed to reassure him I actually did know how to fly! The 172 was a newish SP model that is mostly used for ferrying white-water rafters to and from remote airfields beside the mighty Colorado River.
The weather was clear and sunny, 28C, and quite
breezy when we arrived. The forecast had bad news – winds gusting to 50 knots later in the day, and a very nasty storm coming early the next morning. We were going to do the usual check-ride first, and then Kim and I would go flying alone. However, time being of the essence, we opted for a single flight with Nick in the right seat and Kim in the back. This change in plans turned out to be an excellent choice!
The airport elevation is about 4,500’ resulting in a
slightly different run-up procedure. You lean the mixture to maximum RPM and leave it there. Moab has a 7,000’ runway so no issues with runway length despite the density altitude but we sure noticed it climbing out. We were below gross weight but could only get 450 fpm climb despite the 180 HP up front. Nick, it turns out, is not only a pilot but also guides hiking and mountain-biking tours through Canyonlands. At one point, he told us that the tangle of canyons below us was called the Maze, and his first time hiking though it required him to do the most intensive map-reading he had ever done in his life. There are so many canyons leading off yet more canyons that you must very carefully count how many canyons you have been through. It is supremely easy to become lost. There is no cellphone coverage down in the canyons so no calling for help and no use trying to use your smart-phone’s GPS! Nick provided us with a wonderful running commentary of the spectacular other-worldly scenery we were flying over including its natural history, the geological makeup of the rocks, and the human history of the
Celebrating 65 years
of the area. We also learned that Nick and his coworkers are often called upon to spot overdue hikers and boaters. Sometimes boaters are found miles upstream of where their boats finally ran aground. 10
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As we were flying over this stunning terrain we were
getting bounced around quite a bit because of the high winds hitting the vertical canyon walls, which created substantial mechanical turbulence. We also weren’t making terribly good headway as we headed southwest into the strengthening wind. Eventually it was time to turn back and we decided to cheat and use the GPS in the airplane for the direct route back. It told us we had a groundspeed of 152 knots – the wind had definitely picked up! We dialed up the VOR to get the weather and it informed us that we had a good strong wind right down the one runway at Moab with the temperature being 29C and the dewpoint being -11C. That yielded a relative humidity of 7%, bone-dry by anybody’s standard. Of course, when we got back to the airport the wind was not straight down the runway but about 60 degrees off to our left ensuring that I got some good quality cross-wind practice! We had an awesome day of flying. I highly recommend it!
Christie Hall, BPA
Oh, and as for that nasty storm front – we did have
design & communication
“fun” with that! Sure enough, next morning there was a massive thunderstorm with huge gusting winds and buckets of torrential rain. We sensibly sat in the hotel and watched the weather while sipping our coffee. Don’t want to be on a motorbike in that weather! After the rain stopped the temperature had dropped to 11C. We thought, “Great, the storm-front has passed – we can start riding home now.”
Communications Consultant Digital and Print Media
778-426-3452 info@midnightdesign.ca www.midnightdesign.ca big business thinking for small business
Well, it seems even south-western USA was hav-
ing a long cold winter this year. A couple of hundred miles to the west in a very remote part of Utah we were riding on an interstate with over 100 miles between exits. We ascended a high ridge and the temperature dropped to 4C with ice pellets rattling off our helmets. Still, I figured we were okay because at 2C per 1,000’ the freezing level was still 2,000 feet above us, no need to worry about icy roads. Mother Nature had other ideas! Coming down the mountain, the temperature suddenly dropped to 1C in near whiteout conditions putting ½” of wet snow and sleet on the windshield of the bike – and I don’t recommend that! Still miles from the next exit, we just had to ride it out – very slowly! We were never so glad to find a Denny’s! After drip-drying and consuming copious quantities of hot food and drink for a couple of hours, we got back on the bike to find the further adventures awaiting us on our ride home. ~ Colin Williamson
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First Solos Dustin Eno Instructor: Kale Haley
Geoff Goldie Instructor: Tyler Bishop
Ken Teghtmeyer Instructor: Clint Elliott
Kieran Dunford Instructor: Brad Fraser
Mark Robinson Instructor: Brad Fraser
Mike Millerchip Instructor: Brad Fraser Sheryl Petschl Instructor: Yasuhiro Koide
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First Solos
August 2011
Andrea Ho Instructor: James White
Cheyenne Smith Instructor: Tyler Bishop
Emily Poon Instructor: James White
Laszlo Kabath Instructor: Graham Palmer
Ron Gorodetsky Instructor: Kristen Ursel
Sarah Bergen Instructor: Colin Brown 13
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First Solos Wylie Li Instructor: Colin Brown
Rachel Louis Instructor: Kale Haley
Sikander Randhawa Instructor: Tyler Bishop
Oliver Xie Instructor: Kale Haley “Without disruption of air traffic, these fearless, forthright, indomitable and courageous individuals did venture into the wild blue yonder in flying machines. Furthermore, these skilful individuals did safely land said flying machines at Victoria International Airport, incurring no significant damage to self or machine, thus completing first solo flights.�
Congratulations from the Victoria Flying Club
Kenny Levinski Instructor: Kristen Ursel Celebrating 65 years
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August 2011
Free VFC Classified Ads
AIRCRAFT FOR SALE
Aircraft - Accomodation - Aviation Books and Gear - Help Wanted - Miscellaneous Email the details of your FREE Ad to: thepatrician@shaw.ca
FOR SALE : Certified Cessna 150 C-GHAK NEW PRICE: $18,000
The aircraft was purchased in 2009 and was used to obtain my PPL at the Victoria Flying Club. Shoulder harnesses were installed and all AD’s are complied with. It is ready to fly away! The plane is very well maintained with a clean interior and is currently located in Prince George BC. Delivery to YYJ possible.
Equipment Specifications
Year 1966 Manufacturer CESSNA Model C-150F Price $20,000.00 CDN Location Prince George, Canada Condition Used Serial Number 15063064 Registration C-GHAK Total Time 4657.7 hrs Last Annual Insp. AUG.9/2010
Contact Michael Burns (Owner) cell: 705-521-4682, e-mail: michaelggburns@gmail.com Warren Grafton (Seller) Cell: 250-301-9400
Detailed Description
Engine: Continental O-200-A S/N: 628715A On Condition, 150hr STOH Compression/cold #1 79/80, #2 79/80, #3 78/80, #4 79/80 Propeller: Model :McCauley 1A101 S/N G6309 Time :15.1 TSO Avionics/Radios: NARCO Mode C Transponder NARCO VHF 121.5 ELT New VSI overhauled DG Additional Equipment: 2- place intercom Shoulder harnesses Heavy Duty front Oleo Tow Bar
VFC SMILE CARDS
The Victoria Flying Club is excited
to partner with Thrifty Foods in their very successful Smile Card Program. Pick up your smile card today at the VFC office, and 5% of your grocery purchase will go towards creating scholarships and awards for VFC members. Thank-you Thrifty Foods!
Exterior: 7/10 Interior: 8/10 Other: Gross Weight: 1598 lbs. Empty Weight: 1102 lbs.
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